Discovering history, fun in Columbia, Sonora, Tuolumne City

Sunday

Aug 10, 2014 at 12:01 AM

We resume our tour of Highway 49's Gold Rush gems with Columbia, which took root in March 1850, when Dr. Thaddeous Hildreth and others settled here and began prospecting. Soon, Hildreth Diggins had found the precious metal; in weeks, more than 1,000 miners descended on the area. The gold camp was initially named American Camp and, eventually, Columbia.

Tim Viall

We resume our tour of Highway 49's Gold Rush gems with Columbia, which took root in March 1850, when Dr. Thaddeous Hildreth and others settled here and began prospecting. Soon, Hildreth Diggins had found the precious metal; in weeks, more than 1,000 miners descended on the area. The gold camp was initially named American Camp and, eventually, Columbia.

Today, Columbia State Historic Park preserves the old Gold Rush town of Columbia as a museum of living history. Open seven days a week, all year, the park offers activities and history for all ages.

Columbia's immediate challenge was a steady water supply, used to wash gold out of hillsides and to sluice gold out of gravel deposits. Because no steady streams were nearby, the locals formed the Tuolumne County Water Company to bring water to the town. A competing company was formed in 1854 to bring water from 60 miles away.

By the late 1850s, the two had merged, and use of the water began to change the landscape. It is estimated that the Columbia parking lot and area where kids pan for gold was once 25-30 feet higher, before water was used to wash the gold out of the soil and gravel. All told, $87 million (at 1860s prices) came out of the mines throughout Columbia.

Within years of its founding, the prosperous town had streets well laid-out, and more than 100 stores, saloons, bakeries, blacksmith shops and restaurants were catering to thousands of miners and townsfolk. Columbia would add churches, the Sons of Temperance, a Masonic Lodge, hotels and a concert hall; the town's population jumped to almost 6,000.

Originally, almost all the buildings were made of wood and a huge fire ravaged the city in 1854, destroying most of the structures in the business district. Most were rebuilt in 1855, but a second fire in 1857 destroyed more framed buildings and some of the brick ones; the town again rebuilt and further emphasized brick buildings and state-of-the-art fire suppression.

By the early 1860s, most of the easiest placer gold had been sluiced out, and the town began a slow decline. In the following 20-some years, many of the vacated buildings were torn down, and their sites were mined for gold. By the late 19th century and into the 20th, the town was in visible and steady decay - residents had dropped to fewer than 500.

Columbia's business district is closed to all but foot traffic, and a host of businesses, shops and volunteers bring the town to life, much as it appeared in 1855. Take a stage coach ride, pan for gold, tour blacksmith and livery shops, get a free tour led by period-dressed docents, grab lunch or an ice cream and take in life as it was more than 150 years ago. Best of all, admission, parking and guided tours are free, so a day spent here is easy on the wallet.

From Columbia, head south on Highway 49 to the historic and growing city of Sonora. It offers a large and historic downtown; of special interest are the old courthouse and opera house. Lots of restaurants, too. After your Sonora tour, take the Tuolumne Road to Tuolumne City.

Tuolumne City preserves vestiges of the old Gold Rush town of Summersville, but it's even more interesting due to its hay-day as a logging and lumber capital of the Mother Lode. Tuolumne began in 1854, when Franklin Summers and family settled nearby. In 1856, James Blakely arrived and discovered the first quartz outcropping, which would become his "Eureka" quartz and gold mine.

Other nearby mining towns would spring up (and then disappear); Lone Gulch, two miles south, and Cherokee, two miles north. Later named Cartersville, then Tuolumne City, the gold would quickly be mined out, and the area developed as the heart of logging and lumber production for cities in the Valley, such as Modesto and Stockton.

Of several logging operations, the Westside Lumber Company became the main player, expanding its railroad, the size and complexity of its mill, and developed Tuolumne City into a lumber town of major proportions in the first 60 years of the 20th century. The mill closed in the early 1960s, after a major fire during a labor dispute.

Today, remnants of the lumber empire of the Westside Lumber Company take center stage. Several of the company's buildings remain, though in states of disrepair. Pieces of logging equipment dot the town, from a huge Steam Donkey next to the fire station, to lumbering equipment on the edges of town. You'll find the lumber company's Steam Engine No. 2 in the city park; nearby are the Municipal Auditorium and the local museum (open Saturdays and Sundays, 1-4 p.m. excluding holidays, at 18663 Carter St., (209) 928-3516; http://tuolumnemuseum.wordpress.com). Visit the Tuolumne band of the Miwuk Indian's Black Oak Casino, just a mile away (http://BlackOakCasino.com).

Dining, lodging, camping options: Columbia and Sonora offer quick to gourmet dining options. While Columbia and Tuolumne City offer no overnight accommodations, nearby Sonora offers many motels, hotels, bed and breakfasts and a number of good to fine restaurants. Black Oak Casino also offers hotel accommodations, several cafes and a fine restaurant, the Seven Sisters. Campgrounds can also be found along Highway 49, and up Highway 108 in the Sierras.

How to get there: To reach Columbia, it's just 1.5 hours from Stockton; go east on Highway 4, then south on Highway 49 and watch for the Columbia turnoff. Sonora and Tuolumne City are farther south on Highway 49.

What's nearby: Gold Rush towns such as Angels Camp, Amador City, Sutter Creek and Jamestown make for a nifty collection of historic towns in the Mother Lode.

To plan your visit: Go to http://visitcolumbiacalifornia.com or call the State Park at (209) 588-9128. For Sonora and Tuolumne City insight, go to the Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce, http://tcchamber.com, or call (209) 532-4212.

Next week, we will share insight on touring California with tiny trailers: teardrops, vintage trailers and other small camping rigs.

Happy travels in the West.

Contact Tim Viall at tviall@msn.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/travelblog.